Proposing to my love -Part 2

We left The Melting Pot and I told Brooke I wanted to try something new as we headed to the car. I never typically tell her what we are going to do when I plan a big date so she is used to it. All I tell her is what she needs to bring and what to wear. We drove around the streets downtown in order to disorient her with her surroundings. She is one to rarely know where she is with her navigation skills and I used this to my advantage on this night. I parked on this street downtown after driving around for about 10 minutes. I parked and told her we need to walk from here. As we took off down the sidewalk, I made a left in between some buildings commenting on how I thought we could cut through here. We walked across the east end of the Salt Lake L.D.S. Temple toward the Reflection Pond. My heart started to pound as we grew nearer to what only I knew was about to happen. I said to her, “Lets take a picture here.” Some sister missionaries happened to be walking by at the late hour and Brooke suggested they should take the picture of both of us. They kindly took the picture and started to walk away. I took the camera and told her I wanted to take a picture of her and instructed her to stand on the edge of the short pond wall. She stepped up on to the wall and I traded the camera in my hand for the ring box in my coat pocket. As soon as she turned around I knelt down on one knee. I had planned for several days what I would try and say and thought I would be able to pull this off with ease. All thought in my brain seamed to cease at that moment. I could not remember basically anything for that small moment in time with my heart rate pumping at maximum capability. Then I realized I needed to kick it in gear and I started to talk. I did OK saying some of my thoughts and feelings that I wanted to say. I asked her to take my name, be my wife, and marry me for time and eternity. She was in total shock and kind of mumbled out “Is this really…” and I started to nod my head. Tears started to pour form both of our cheeks as she jumped off the wall in to my arms and we spun around, kissing, her in my arms; like you would see as a perfect ending in one of those love movies. She popped her head back and said, “Let me see the ring,” with excitement in her voice. I still had the box in my hand. I responded, “you need to answer me first you never said anything.” She said, “Yes, yes, of course.” We stayed there holding each other close looking in to each other’s eyes slowly taking in all the excitement and try to start to grasp what just happened. I had other things planned for that night, but we did not do any of it. We drove around downtown for about 30 minutes then decided we had enough and just wanted to go home and play video games together. On the way home we called our parents and siblings letting them know the good news. We have now planned our wedding to take place 6/7/08 in the Salt Lake Temple right where we first officially committed to each other to spend the rest of our lives together.

Proposing to my love -part 1

I have finally done it. I am going to bite the dust as they say. I proposed to my girlfriend of over two years. To my skeptic friends who never thought I would do it, ha, you were wrong. To my friends that thought it was going to happen sooner or later, yes it did. I am so, so excited. I am marrying the love of my life, the girl of my dreams, and my soul mate. I love her with all my heart. She is amazing and every moment I spend at her side is never long enough. Yeh, all you guys think I am cheesy at this moment and maybe I am guilty of that. So what? I just don’t really care what most people think of me I have never really been one to care that much about those sort of things.
To get in to the story, I will tell you about the night I asked my fiancé to marry me. It was Valentine’s Day 2008. I had planned an evening of potential cool activities and nice dinner planed ahead with reservations made at multiple restaurants just in case some plans went south. I had planned this day to be the one I asked Brooke to be my wife since the beginning of December. I wanted it to be as perfect as possible. It was not possible to do exactly what I wanted to do because we are both full time students and Valentine’s Day was on a Thursday. When all of your classes are on Tuesday and Thursday, it makes those days very busy and difficult to miss or schedule around. Back in December I had ordered the construction of a custom made engagement ring. Brooke and I had looked at a few places and I had an idea of what she liked. I did not worry too much because our taste is very similar in a lot of things. This gave me the confidence to follow my own idea and get the ring made exactly how I wanted the design. I am somewhat of a perfectionist in certain areas of my life (most things besides cleaning and organizing). I ordered the ring and the company said that it would take four to six weeks to complete it. After patiently waiting I did not get the ring until two weeks before the big day. The dilemma was that I ordered a ring without a stone. I needed to see the ring to get the stone because it has a fairly specific placement to fit in. It added a little bit of stress to the whole situation, but it worked out. After waiting for all of this to come together, the ring did not get fit with the stone by the required date so I went to Wal-Mart and bought a temporary ring to ask with. After class ended that afternoon we headed out to Salt Lake to have diner at a restaurant called The Melting Pot. We had always talked about eating here, but never went because it is too expensive. This was a good of night as any to justify the splurge. It was perfect; we had the front corner table in the restaurant that had windows on two sides looking down Main Street in downtown Salt Lake. It was a four-course meal starting with a cheese dip, followed by salad, then the main course, ending with a delicious dessert. The total bill was $160 and if I never pay that again for a meal for the rest of my life I will be content. Dinner was finished off with a picture taken by the waiter that was attached to the menu and a rose for any girl that came to eat there that night.

Ok, so I have been staying with my grandparents the past few months and it gets a little old, but they are not bad. I am pretty much never home so it works out pretty good and you can’t ignore the best part about it… it’s free! It has been great because the past few days they have been out of town in Florida. I have re-arranged the furniture to optimize video watching. Guess who has their car in the garage… yes, me. I have never in my life had the wonderful ability to enjoy a garage. I have owned well over 50 cars and no garage. Sad. I can’t wait for the day when I buy a home with a garage. I look forward to it more than I should. I have two storage units to keep my belongings and motorcycles in and I have a moving truck I have full of things from my last apartment. Its kind of crazy I know, but basically I need a big house. That is partially why I moved from my last one bedroom place. I need at least two bedrooms because I have too much crap. I don’t even know how I get it all, but I do.
There is one main thing that has really been only able to describe as amazing! Since my grandparents have been out of town I can BLAST my music again! I have lived in apartments for more than the past two years and I had to be quiet. Being forced to be quiet when you are a loud individual at heart sucks. I like my music like you hear it in a concert, loud and in your face. I want to feel the bass vibrate my soul and hear the highs penetrate every receptor in my body. By the way did I mention that I love music! Yes, I am one of those obnoxious kids you were pissed at because someone else’s music in the car behind you was making your rear view mirror shake. Its though, you got over it. Basically if you get the hint I am excited right now because I am home alone rocking out to very loud music, singing my heart out with no one that can hear me or complain about the volume (or poor singing). I like to sing, but only in showers and cars. If I ever had a band I would have to name it showers and cars as a tribute to my singing practice sessions. Well, I am done rambling for now and a good song just started so have a nice day.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. I am so excited for the snow. I moved from Arizona to Utah for the snow. I love to ski and snowboard and it is a way of life for my family and I. My dad raced mogul downhill skiing and two of my uncles raced G.S. and were ski instructors. Most all of my family skis and it has been a family tradition for a long time.
This winter has been so good! Utah has been at some level of a drought for a while now and I am so happy to see a change this year. I hear so many people talk about how Utah needs more snow, but now that we are actually getting it people complain about living in it. I guess it is a double edged sword. All I have to say is you won’t hear me complaining. This is what I came here for and I am happy. Growing up in Arizona, we never saw snow where I lived. There was one time where they said it snowed in Scottsdale, where I lived, but it was more like a 4 minute light hail. I remember the “cold” days there when the news would warn people about once a year that it may get below freezing at night so people had to cover their flowers to protect them. Now that I live here in Utah, I still get as excited as a little kid on Christmas day, when it snows.
This week is a great week because it is the annual Weekes challenge. Once a year all of the good skiers in my family get together at Snowbird and have a family ski day where everyone pushes it to the max showing off their best talent as our herd skis down the hills. It is such a big deal with my family that all the non-locals fly in from out of state to participate in the activities. My uncle Brent comes from Phoenix. My uncle Jim, aunt Nancy, and cousin Lindsey come from Colorado. We will have about 10-15 people showing up together for our day of fun in the snow.
We have many very good skiers in the family, but I started a revolution of uprising snowboarders. I was the first one in the family to try out that sport, and though some will not try it, about half of us have given it a shot. I am the type of person that does not like to limit my options. If it sound half way reasonable (and sometimes not reasonable at all) I will probably try it out at least once.I will try to post some cool pics from the Snowbird day so check back